Google has recently released updates to its Android app for Google Maps to version 4.6. The new features in the update are a new Latitude feature showing real time information on friends, search filters and better Place page reviews. The official blog post says,

Lately, we’ve been working on giving you even better ways to find nearby places with Google Maps for Android, such as the Places icon and rich Place pages. Today, we are launching Google Maps 4.6 with a new design for Place page reviews, more options to filter search results, and a Google Latitude real-time updating option.

The Place page will use a similar interface as that on the desktop and will show reviews from users and from the web separately. The filter search results allow us to search for currently open places, related places and places in the neighborhood. This will make many other apps providing these functionalities useless.

The new version of Google Maps, version 4.6 sports a visually appealing feature as Google Latitude real-time updating. This feature requires Android 2.2 and allows you to see your friend’s location updates faster. This can speed up a meeting significantly.

Google is taking its Maps business very seriously and is constantly striving to make it better. Currently, it is the only fully functioning map on the phone with an array of features. That has given it a very strong position and hopefully, it stays so.

Chinmoy Kanjilal is a FOSS enthusiast and evangelist. He is passionate about Android. Security exploits turn him on and he loves to tinker with computer networks. He rants occasionally at Techarraz.com. You can connect with him on Twitter @ckandroid.